… and Go! The Google Code-in 2012 contest has officially started! If you are a 13-17 year old pre-university (high school) student interested in computer science who would like to learn more about open source software development while earning cool prizes, sign up on our program site today. Students have the opportunity to select tasks from 5 categories (coding, documentation/training, quality assurance, research/outreach and user interface) that are designed by 10 open source organizations that will provide mentors for the students. Students earn certificates, t-shirts and Grand Prize Winners will win a trip for themselves and a parent or legal guardian to Google’s Mountain View California campus in 2013. Each of the 10 open source organizations will choose 2 of the 5 students that complete the most tasks with their organization as their Grand Prize Winners for a total of 20 Grand Prize Winners for Google Code-in 2012- that’s twice as many Grand Prize Winners as last year!

Last year, 542 students from 56 countries competed in the contest: this year you could be one of the students from around the world learning new skills and making new friends by experiencing the awesome world of open source development.

The panel consisted of a former scholarship recipient finalist (now full-time employee at Google) and senior judges who sit on the application review committee. They discussed what we look for when reviewing scholarship applications, what the application process looks like, and general tips for those interested in applying.

Every time you send a text, check a webpage or post a status update, you’re using open source software. The Internet is made of open source. But have you ever created any yourself? With the Google Code-in contest, pre-university students (13-17 years old) can learn more and create open source software that people all over the world can use—and win cool prizes along the way.

Starting Monday, November 26 and for the following 50 days, contest participants will work on fun online tasks for 10 different open source organizations. Possible challenges include documentation, marketing outreach, software coding, user experience research and more.

Participants earn points for each task they successfully complete and can earn prizes like T-shirts and certificates of completion. This year we’re doubling the number of grand prize winners to 20 talented students, who will win a trip to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. They’ll spend a day getting a tour of the “Googleplex,” meeting and talking with Google engineers, plus enjoy another full day exploring San Francisco and other surprises.

Some of the 2011 Google Code-in Grand Prize Winners by the Golden Gate Bridge

Last year, 542 students from 56 countries and 360 schools completed 3,054 tasks during the eight-week contest. This year we want to encourage even more students to participate in the contest and learn about open source development. If you’d like to sign up, please review our Frequently Asked Questions and the contest rules on our program site. You can also watch our screencast, check out some sample tasks from last year’s contest and join our discussion list for any other questions. For details on important dates for the contest, see the timeline. You can register for your account on the program site when the contest opens on Monday, November 26 at 9:00am PST.

Finally, our Open Source Programs team will be hosting a Hangout on Air on the Google Education page November 26 at 2:00pm PST to discuss the details of the Google Code-in contest and answer any questions.

We hope you’ll spend your winter (or summer, for our friends in the southern hemisphere) learning about the ins and outs of open source development through hands-on experience. Ready...set...

Last week we hosted a Hangout On Air with a few of our current technical interns and intern hosts. They talked about their experiences as part of the internship program at Google and gave us a sneak peak into what the program is like. You can watch the video from the Hangout on Air below and learn more about available internship opportunities in our North America offices at google.com/students/intern.

It’s that time of year when most of our summer interns have returned back to campus, and we begin our search for the next class of technical interns who are ready to make an impact in 2013. It’s also a nice time to reflect on all the fun intern activities that have taken place such as hiking trips in the Swiss Alps, riding segways through Munich in the rain and visiting salt mines in Krakow. In addition to all the fun, interns in EMEA contribute to large scale projects, help launch products and features, attend seminars, take part in competitions, meet lots of smart people from all over the world and sometimes, get to witness a little bit of history through the first intern exchange visit with CERN!Interns in EMEA have the opportunity to work in 12 different countries and take part in different programs to suit their skills and background. This year we introduced STEP (Summer Trainee Engineering Program) internships for engineering students who have completed the first year of their university studies. The program is based in London, Munich, Krakow and Zurich. Applications for the 2013 STEP internships (formerly Engineering Trainee Summer Program) are now open, check out the application page on Google Students site for more information. In addition to STEP, there is a specific program for students who study computer science at an African University. The Africa Trainee Program is based in Zurich and is an opportunity to spend the summer working with engineers and program managers on the Emerging Markets team. Franklin Ochieng, an intern from this year’s class, shared his experience as an intern in the Diary of a Summer Intern series and had this to say: Here at Google, I have learnt best practices, I have learnt to optimize, I have learnt to secure, I have learnt to design, I have learnt foresight, I have learnt teamwork, I have learnt to pay attention to detail. I've seen my code improve tremendously throughout the summer thanks to this review process. Basically, I have learnt to code like the professionals, like a real programmer.Applications for this program are also open now, check out our application page for more information. You must be a student and you must be studying at a university based in Africa.

If you are interested in becoming part of any of our intern programs in EMEA, apply here for our 2013 internships. You’ll have the chance to work on impactful projects and have a world class internship experience!Posted by Emma Edwards, College Recruiter - Europe, Middle East and Africa

As the last of our EMEA Summer Trainee Engineering Program (STEP) interns finish up for summer 2012, we sat down with two of our London based interns to discuss their time at Google, what their plans are for the future and quizzed them for more insights into STEP for next year’s students! We’re also pleased to announce that applications are available for STEP 2013.

Tell us your name, university, major and any other relevant background info.

Elena: My name is Elena, I’m currently going into my second year at Bucharest University, studying computer science. The last relevant thing I did prior to STEP was a Girls Programming Camp at college. I first started programming in high school but participated in mathematics competitions before that.Mariana: My name is Mariana, I’m currently going into my third year at the Politehnica University in Bucharest, studying computer science. In high school I was really into mathematics and physics, but now l enjoy informatics, the logic behind it, as well as solving problems.How did you find out about the STEP Internship? Elena: Actually this is funny. I accidentally saw a friend like a link to STEP applications on a social network and didn’t expect to get a response so quickly after applying!Mariana: I saw an email from a Google Student Ambassador at Politehnica and applied, as I thought this internship suited me very well.Why did you apply?Elena: I already had lots of plans for the summer but I thought it would be interesting to do interviews and have the experience of doing some phone interviews at Google!Mariana: I thought it would be nice to apply for an internship at Google. The perception is that for standard internships, you need to be in your 4th year or beyond but this internship is targeted at students in the earlier years of their studies. It sounded great so I thought, why not apply?What did you do during your time at Google?Elena: I worked on the Mobile team and did lots of coding! I worked on re-writing some code, refactoring as well as implementing a UI!Mariana: I worked on Geo, mainly on front end work. I also learnt to interact with loads of people in different areas as the project used lots of different technologies.What was your favourite part?Elena: Absolutely everything ...well, after finishing reading tutorials! The first two weeks were overwhelming and tough, but after that I found my feet.Mariana: I loved meeting new people and finding out about their projects. I also enjoyed working on a visual project and to see people excited about some aspects of my work during my final presentation was great!What did you get out of STEP? What skills did you gain?Elena: I enjoyed learning from hands on experience rather than only doing coursework. It was great to learn more about Google specific technologies and new concepts like version control. I also got a taste of managing a healthy work-life-balance.Mariana: I learnt what writing good code is all about. I also learnt how to apply the things that I learnt and discussing different methods with others was also fun.What are the next steps for you?Elena: I’m going back to university and would like to do a summer internship every year from now.Mariana: I’m going back to my 3rd year and looking forward to a graphics course and catching up with friends. I’m also actually looking forward to homework and coding assignments. Hopefully next year I’ll be back at Google!Do you have any advice for anyone considering applying to the STEP Internship?Elena: Yes: once you find out what team you will work with, read as much as you can beforehand.Mariana: Just APPLY. Send your CV - don’t think too much about it and you will be fine :)Posted by Farrah Djohan, Intern Programs

Our interns explore new ideas, accelerate the launch of new product features, and are big contributors to Google. Technical interns are embedded in every major engineering team at Google where their impact is unconstrained by titles.

Now you can learn more about our Technical Intern Program in North America this Friday, November 9th at 10 am PST/1 pm EST on the Google Students page on Google+. Current interns and intern hosts will talk about their experience and give you a sneak peak at what our intern program is like.

Haz question? You can submit your questions and vote for previous ones here: http://goo.gl/En9Kd or post your question and the hashtag #GoogleInternHangout on Google+ or Twitter. Can’t catch it live? No worries, we will upload the recording to the Google Students YouTube Channel: http://goo.gl/xaAIo.

Following our 2013 Google Scholarships in EMEA announcement, we’re hosting a Hangout on Air on Monday, November 5 at 16:30 GMT (find your local time here) from the Google Students page on Google+ to help prepare interested applicants. This Hangout on Air will feature a panel of former scholar recipients who are now Google engineers as well as two judges who sit on the application review committee. We’ll be giving general tips on what we look for when reviewing applications, answering questions about the application process and sharing experiences about the retreat.

You can submit your questions and vote for previous ones here or by using the hashtag #emeascholars on Google+ or Twitter. No worries if you can’t watch the Hangout live - we will upload the recording to the Google Students YouTube Channel.